Sharing Body Heat is not Cuddling (Except for when it is)
by casbuddy
Summary: Ugly sweaters, hot chocolates and human hot water bottles.


"Dean, I'm cold."

"Then put a sweater on," Dean replies, leaving his back to Cas and carrying on with cleaning the dishes.

"I am wearing a sweater," Cas remarks grumpily. Turning to focus his attention on Cas, Dean doesn't even bother to comment on the garish sweater that Cas has on. Dean has long since stopped asking where the hell Cas gets his ridiculous ensembles from and how each purchase of clothing somehow manages to be uglier than the one before. Today's sweater is no different; red and green patterned stripes with a freaking robin plastered on the front of it to top the ugliness off. Honestly, Dean would wonder whether Cas is colour blind if it wasn't for the other week where Cas had gotten drastically drunk and kept mentioning how green Dean's eyes were over and over.

"Why is it so cold?" Cas asks accusedly like it's Dean's fault, crossing his arms and huddling in on himself.

"It's the middle of winter Cas," Dean rolls his eyes, "What did you expect?"

Cas pouts at that like a freaking petulant child, eyes sliding over to the radiator, "Did you turn the heating system on?"

"Sam did before he left," Dean answers, "He set it up nice and high because he knows how you can bitch about it."

Cas pointedly chooses not to comment on that, instead saying frostily, "Well, it doesn't appear to be working."

Frowning, Dean dries his hands before making his way to the radiator, placing a cautious hand on it before realising that Cas is right, what had been boiling hot earlier is now only lukewarm.

"Shit."

"There must be a malfunction. Do you know where the controls are?" Castiel asks calmly and with the way he says it and his stupid raised eyebrow, Dean knows Cas is getting a little kick out of proving Dean wrong, the little shit.

"No," Dean sighs, "I don't."

Cas' eyebrow stays annoyingly upright as he states, "This is your home and you don't know where or how the-"

"For fucks sake Cas, have you seen the size of this place?" Dean grouches, "Just wait till Sam and Kevin get back from town. Sam was the one who got it set up and working in the first place, I'm sure he'll know how to fix the stupid thing."

"But that could be hours Dean," Cas practically whines, wrapping his arms even tighter around himself.

"Well if you're that bothered, try and find it yourself," Dean says flippantly, too tired for this shit.

Cas watches him for a moment, giving him the regular 'if I had my powers, I would smite the shit out of you' face before stalking off to wherever he had come from within the bunker. With an elongated sigh, Dean goes back to cleaning and rinsing the dirty cutlery, hoping that Sam and Kevin will come back quick enough before Cas gets his full grump on and throws a tantrum.

After he's finished up in the kitchen, starting to take note that yep, the rooms are starting to drastically cool down, he figures that he may as well kick back and watch some television to reward himself.

What he finds is that the couch is already being occupied by a mound that looks suspiciously like Cas, head peeking out of a mass of blankets. Cas has apparently taken Dean's advice and he's added yet another sweater, his favourite one if Dean remembers right, one that's three sizes too big and hangs off one of his shoulders, bright blue with a fucking rabbit on the front (seriously, where the fuck does he get this shit).

"Jesus Cas, it's not that cold," Dean says, finding himself smiling at Cas all the same because okay, Dean's man enough to admit that Cas looks freaking adorable in his shitty sweaters.

Burrowing his nose under the covers, Cas' reply is hardly audible, "Yes it is."

"Look, I'll start a fire in here okay? We might as well use the fireplace at some point," Dean shrugs, grabbing some of the logs beside the fireplace.

"Thank you Dean," Castiel mumbles under his cocoon.

"You're welcome Cas," Dean smiles, throwing log upon log into a pile, "Sam and Kevin will be back soon but for now, this'll warm you up, okay?"

He gets a muffled sound of agreement in reply and Dean figures that's the end of the conversation so he focuses on making the fire to warm Cas up a bit. It doesn't particularly take very long for sparks to ignite into flames seeing has Dean has been making fires since he was a kid, but he mentally pats himself on the back all the same.

"See, better already," Dean tells Cas with what he hopes to be a comforting smile which quickly turns into a frown when he sees that Cas is a shivering mess.

"I'm still c-cold," Cas stutters out.

"Um," Dean wracks his brain, "How about I make you a hot chocolate, the way you like it with all the marshmallows and stuff?"

Cas looks up at him with round eyes before nodding. Dean nods back before going back to the kitchen again, mentally cursing Sam for somehow fucking up the heating and then cursing himself for not knowing how to fix it.

Softly humming to himself, Dean makes Cas a steaming cup of hot chocolate, putting far too much cream and marshmallows in there than necessary but he figures they'll cheer Cas up somewhat and hopefully warm him up too.

With a cheery grin, Dean takes the filled cup back to Cas, handing it to him before planting himself on the tiny bit of space left on the couch.

Cupping the cup in his hands close to his face, Cas murmurs gratefully, still shivering, "Thank you D-Dean."

"You're welcome buddy."

With that, Dean grabs the remote of the television and switches it on, flicking through the channels and trying to ignore the fact that even as Cas drinks his hot drink, he's still shivering. Even when Cas has fucking drank the whole cup and the fire is flickering nicely, he's still shaking like he's in the middle of the freaking North Pole and Dean's attention is solely back on Cas all over again.

"Seriously Cas, how can you be so cold?" Dean asks, not meaning for it to sound accusatory but it comes out that way anyway as he takes the now empty cup from Cas' grip and plonks it on the coffee table.

Cas looks at the empty cup for a moment before turning his gaze to Dean, narrowing his eyes, "How are you _not_ cold?"

Dean looks down at his attire, "I have two layers on."

Cas huffs, "Dean, I have two sweaters on and many blankets and I'm still cold."

Dean contemplates it for a moment before shrugging, "I don't know, I guess I've got used to shitty living conditions, I don't really feel the cold as much. Here, even without the heating, is far nicer _and_ warmer than some of the other places I've stayed in. I don't know, maybe I'm just warm blooded or something," Cas nods at that, eyes going soft and Dean nudges him, "What about you, you're acting like you're in fucking Antarctica."

"Dean, this is the first time that I've dealt with winter while human," Cas explains softly, looking at Dean with wide, sad eyes. And fuck, Dean can deal with a lot of things but he has yet learnt how to ignore Cas' baby blues looking at him like that. Dean swears that Sam has been giving the guy lessons on how to do the sad, puppy face.

Because Dean really can't deny that face anything, he does something that he normally wouldn't ever think about doing in real life, but not before pointing a finger at Cas and saying in a sharp tone, "Okay, what I'm about to do, we don't tell anyone okay? We never discuss it again, capische?"

Cas' eyes widen but he nods anyway so Dean pulls the layers of blankets up so he can squish underneath them with Cas, "Here," Dean mumbles, cheeks reddening as he tucks them in more„ "Shared body heat helps."

Without a freaking warning, Cas throws himself on Dean, wrapping his arms around Dean's neck and very nearly sitting on his lap.

"Cas," Dean says, startled, but somehow his arms have sneaked around Cas' waist to keep him there, "I said share body heat, not fucking jump on me and use me as your very own hot water bottle."

"But you're so warm," Cas sighs, head burrowing in Dean's neck, his cold nose pressing into Dean's skin making Dean yelp.

"And you're freaking freezing," Dean states, pulling Cas a little closer to him as he runs one hand up and down Cas' back to try and cause some sort of friction to make him wamer. Cas mumbles something in reply that Dean doesn't quite catch and then Cas is putting even more of his weight onto Dean and under all intents and purposes, straddling his fucking lap. Dean has no urge to throw Cas off though, in fact, he actually pulls Cas even closer, burying his face in Cas' hair with the excuse that he's only doing it to warm Cas up. Because holding Cas like this is… Nice. Comforting even. And while Dean hadn't woken up this morning with the expectation of fucking cuddling with Cas, he can't help but feel that now the situation is here, he's perhaps enjoying it far more than he should be.

"This is nice," Cas sighs contently, voicing Dean's thoughts aloud, nuzzling his nose against Dean before freezing in Dean's grip, slowly pulling himself away from Dean with startled eyes, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't- I shouldn't have said that."

"No," Dean feels his own cheeks heating up, "I guess-" Dean gulps, tugging Cas back to him, "I guess I like this too."

Dean feels Cas' smile imprint into his neck as Cas hides his face there, puffing steady, warm breaths against Dean's skin. Tilting his head, Dean presses his own nose into Cas' hair, holding him closely and smiling softly as Cas slowly stops shivering. He would never admit it aloud but being here with Cas safely tucked in his arms and the fire flickering, well, not much gets better than this. And maybe he might have dreamt this a couple of times too but no one has to know that either.

"You're warming up," Dean states quietly, arms stilling around Cas' waist and okay, one may or may not accidentally slide up Cas' two jumpers to rest on the slither of skin that's now warm rather than cold.

"Yes," Cas nods, "Thank you Dean."

"For being your hot water bottle? That's okay," Dean jokes.

"Not just for that," Cas mumbles, pulling away from Dean so he can look him in the eyes, "Thank you for always being there, for being what I need."

Dean shuffles around uncomfortably, fixating on a snag in Cas' sweater, anywhere than look at Cas' face that's full of gratitude, "I think you've me confused with someone else Cas."

"No I haven't," Cas says, bringing a hand up to cup Dean's jaw as he puts his own face more in Dean's eye line so Dean has no choice but to look at him, "You have always been what I needed Dean, when I became human you were the one who taught me what good burgers are, you showed me how to make coffee with the coffee machine in the kitchen even though you still make them all for me anyway and when I needed you to be a hot water bottle," Cas smiles fondly, "You became that too so- so thank you for that Dean."

Dean exhales and he should be feeling more than unworthy for those statements but he finds himself nodding anyway because Cas can somehow do this, can make him feel worthy, can make him feel like a good person, can make him feel _needed._

"I-" Dean coughs, feeling a little uncomfortable because here they are, Cas is fucking straddling him and they're talking about feelings and shit and it's a lot to take in, "I'm really glad you're here."

"So am I," Cas murmurs and he's not sure at what point it happened but Dean realises their faces are really freaking close, so close that Dean can feel Cas' breaths on his own lips and fuck, what are they talking about again?

"Even though the bunker is freezing right now, I'm glad I'm here," Cas says with a soft smile, "I'm glad I can call it," he licks his lips like he's unsure, "I'm glad I can call it my home."

Dean's hands tighten their grip on Cas' waist, subsequently pulling Cas as close to him as possible, their foreheads touching now, "This is your home Cas, don't ever think otherwise. This is your home and we're your family."

"Family?" Cas asks, voice small and a little disbelieving and Dean hates that Cas would even question it and before Dean even knows it, he's pressing his lips against Cas'. It's not something he'd planned, he'd never planned on acting on his feelings for Cas that are burrowed deep down and hidden away. But he'd also never planned on cuddling up to Cas either so today must be one of those days.

To Dean's relief, Cas doesn't break away, doesn't shout at him in disgust, he simply parts his lips slightly, hand still cupping Dean's jaw. Dean deepens the kiss just a little, not quite ready to break away just yet, hand ravelling in Cas' hair and keeping him steady as he captures Cas' bottom lip between his own. As a reply, Cas' body shudders against Dean's, making Dean pull back to gather his expression, relaxing when he sees the faint smile on Cas' lips. Slowly, Cas exhales, eyes fluttering open and locking with Dean's.

"Family," Cas agrees softly, eyes warm as he burrows his head back into Dean's neck, arms going back to wrapping around Dean's neck.

"Yeah," Dean breathes out, curling a lock of Cas' hair with his finger and kissing the top of Cas' head.

Dean must drift off at some point because the next thing he knows he's being awoken by childish giggling and noises that sound suspiciously like clicks from camera phones. He hears whispers and some more giggles, Kevin saying something that makes Sam choke as he tries to keep quiet.

The jokes on them though when Dean opens his eyes and gives them a cheery grin, "Hey guys, you should send me those pictures 'cause then I can use them as the wallpaper on my phone," he shuts his eyes and snuggles back to a snoring Cas, "Oh and go fix the fucking heating."

Dean pointedly ignores when Kevin mutters, "Called it."


End file.
